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Police to text public with abduction alerts

POLICE are to use mobile-phone text messages to enlist the help of the public in the hunt for abducted children.

Forces across Scotland will send descriptions of abductors to thousands of mobile-phone users within minutes of a disappearance being reported.

Information will also be beamed to motorway signs. Members of the public will be encouraged to report sightings to a central control room.

The system, Amber Alert, will be piloted in Scotland later this year and is expected to be extended throughout Britain in 2005.

Senior officers say the hours immediately after an abduction are crucial, and lives could be saved with the help of mobile phone users. Text messaging will also be used to alert people to terrorist bomb threats or civil disruptions such as rioting. Ultimately, police hope to use picture messaging to send images of suspects to phones.